Hollywood Unhappy With Google (Again)

from the here-we-go dept

Google has a delicate relationship with Hollywood and media companies, as evidenced by many of their feelings about YouTube. But the issues go beyond its own efforts, as now a group of media companies are irked with Google because they say it benefits from film piracy. This has nothing to do with their copyrighted content that turns up on YouTube, but rather because Google sold ads to some guys running a website that sold some shady software to help people find movies to download from P2P networks. The allegations that Google's somehow responsible for furthering piracy by selling ads for these sites are a bit tenuous, but given the frosty relationship with media companies, it's not surprising to see that Google's decided to instill some more controls on ads it sells, particularly for keywords leading to sites like these. These sorts of issues will become more prevalent for Google as it looks to build up things like YouTube and Google Video, and the media companies fail to see the benefits they deliver and focus instead on feeling exploited and abused by them. But Google's set the precedent of making deals with copyright holders, giving Hollywood the expectation that it gets to decide what is and isn't acceptable for Google to do, and determining just how much it's going to cost them.

Re: Life as a spectator (R - for Rerun)

This has nothing to do with Youtube, but with some stupid idiots running a piracy website. And apparently they had google-ads on it (like million other websites) and that is why Hollywood wants to go after Google, since they clearly agree with piracy by providing the ads...

Google IS evil

Face it. Google does make money by expropriating material. You may like YouTube and find it useful, but that doesn't it legal.

Carrying advertisements for tools to help people break the law is just another example of how amoral the company is. Why should it surprise anyone that a company responsible for wholesale copyright violations has been advertising tools to allow people to violate copyrights?

Hmmm

Advertising what?

I don't think this as about adverts that tell you where to get p2p software or torrents... this is about ads that appear on the website after people have already found it. Those ads will mostly be for perfectly legal things like (given the nature of the site) iTunes or NetFlix or Tivo.

Which is just one more amusing little detail. People wanting free movies have already found this website. People wanting to buy legal music and movies online, rent movies by mail, or legally time-shift their favorite TV shows may stumble on this website by accident. Any advertising they see once they arrive can't possibly lead them to a less-legal alternative.

Learn the law, kiddies.

So are you saying that Wal-Mart can no longer advertise knapsacks, flashlights, or face mask toboggans?

They can advertise each of those things, but not for use as Burglar's tools. They cannot they make a "Burglar's Kit" with a knapsack, flashlight and face mask and sell it for the purpose of burglary. Nor can they advertise lock picking kits or slim jims for sale to the general public. Indeed, these former tools are illegal to possess in many states unless you have a license.

The point is not the tool. The point is advertising the use of the tool for illegal purposes. You can sell rocks for gardens and have no problem. Try selling rocks for breaking windows and see what promoting an illegal activity nets you.

Normal corporate activity has a right to exist

Hollywood creates many middle-class jobs, thousands of them.
Most peopel who are hurt by piracy (and I'd venture those most painfully affected) are not the "Elite", but regular people.

Like any normal, legal corporate entity, it has a right to make a profit, and to defend thsi profit against theft.

Even if they were an elite, you cannot have a civilized society if anyone successful, or part of any elite, cannot defend against theft. Maybe if you were smarter or worked harder, you would be part of teh elite too. Countries are not made great only by "poor, regular folk"

In this instance, Hollywood is not attacking some frail old lady living off her pension, they are attacking one of the wordl's largest corporataions for litterally stealing their money. They have every right to do so.

If you think all coportaions hsoudl eb bankrupted, and that soem form of communist, or perhaps hippie-commune like society shoudl replace them, then I suggest you visit a communist country, or a hippie commune for that matter.